Leslie Carlson Vaughan

Oakland, CA 94611   (San Francisco Bay Area)
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User Experience + Visual Interface Designer. Through a user-centered design methodology, Leslie has created innovative and fun to use products for over 15 years. She has a BA in Psychology and a MFA in Visual Communications with an Interaction Design focus.

Consulting Experience

User Experience + Visual Interface Design Consultant
Oakland, CA 2004 – present
Projects for various clients including AAA (membership enterprise system), Sococo (social communications), Tango (mobile apps), appbackr (crowd funding), Red Spin, FoneLook, PremierEquity.com and others. Services include user experience design, user research, information architecture, visual design, usability evaluations, web site development and online branding.

Visual Interface Designer, Intuit
Mt. View, CA 2002 – 2005
Visual interface designer for QuickBooks Online Edition standard and simple start web-based applications. Working with the QBOE User Experience team, designed and delivered visual layouts of pages, diagrams, icons and screen graphics for Intuit's QuickBooks web-based applications. In addition to web-based application, was visual design lead of external web site, QBOE.com.

User Interface Designer, Adobe (Adobe Photoshop Album)
San Jose, CA 2004
Working through Zaudhaus, responsible for the interface design of a web-based ecommerce application add-on. Project's scope included purchasing photo projects and prints, account set-up and management. Created user task analysis, user flows, information architecture and prototype look and feel.

User Interface Designer, Avinon
San Francisco, CA 2001
User Experience Designer for Avinon NetScenario Studio web-based application. Created user profile documents, user experience diagrams and product work flows. Documented task analysis, user requirements and product features for current and future releases. Ran low-fidelity prototypes, designed feature schematics and wrote final feature specifications.

Experience: Full Time

VP User Experience + Co-Founder, ibizu Corp.
Berkeley, CA 1999 – 2001
Founded ibizu with NetObjects VP of Engineering and Sr. NetObjects Engineer. Implemented a user-centered design process for web-based group communication applications. Designed and conducted site visits, user interviews and both low and high-fidelity usability evaluations. Based on user research, defined usability requirements and product feature set. Diagramed user experiences, created schematics and prototypes, delivered final feature specifications and interface elements.

Product Designer, NetObjects, Inc.
Redwood City, CA 1998 – 1999
Through an iterative design process, scoped, researched, designed, prototyped and usability tested user interfaces for NetObjects' Fusion website-builder desktop and web-based applications. Mapped out and defined user experiences, created schematics and wrote final specifications for product features. Worked across departments in researching and promoting new features, methods and designs. Designed and produced icons for desktop application. Managed, designed and produced multimedia CD installer for NetObjects Fusion 4.0. Planned, conducted and analyzed usability research projects for desktop and web-based applications.

Visual Interface Designer, Claris/FileMaker Inc. (Div. of Apple)
Santa Clara, CA 1996 – 1998
Lead visual interface designer on Claris HomePage web site building tool. Designed icons, splash screens, wizards, installers, product templates and visual interfaces. Created visual guidelines for application, on screen brand identifiers and typography. As visual interface designer on FileMaker (desktop and web-based versions) researched, designed and prototyped user interfaces for various web database front ends and multimedia CDs.

Marketing Coordinator, Easel Software Corporation
Woburn, MA 1990 – 1992
Liaison for Director of Marketing between media, designers and advertising agencies. Tracked budget, reviewed advertising agencies and campaigns. Produced presentations, reports and surveys. On design review committee of Easel's Workbench software demonstration disk.

Teaching Experience

Graduate Student Teaching Assistant, Northern Illinois University
School of Art, DeKalb, IL 1993 – 1996
Taught Introduction to Electronic Media portfolio class. This studio class introduced methods and concepts of electronic media art using Macintosh Computers. Projects included animation of typography, desktop publishing and (HyperCard) programming of interactive "postcards." Wrote curriculum, taught user-center design concepts and worked one-on-one with students in lab.

Graduate Student Assistant for Education Dept. Grant, Northern Illinois University
College of Education, DeKalb, IL 1995 (Summer)
Worked with NIU Education Department professor on interviewing elementary school teachers in South Chicago. As the only onsite graduate student, worked with professor in the planning and conducting of a week long session on educating teachers to create their own Math "story" using HyperCard. Instructed teachers in using computers and writing and producing their own math "story."

Publications

Understanding Movement, Technical Note, CHI '97
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1997
Published and presented technical note at CHI '97 in Atlanta on movement, it's meaning and how it can be applied to interface design.

Nathan Shedroff, Experience Design 1, 2001
New Riders, Indianapolis, Indiana
ibizu interface design featured (pp. 51, 52)

Education

Northern Illinois University, Master of Fine Arts, 1996
DeKalb, IL
Visual Communications Department, School of Art

Clemson University, Bachelor of Art, 1989
Clemson, SC
B.A. Psychology, Minor in Marketing